Older Women and Sex

2012-01-30

By: Libby Znaimer

Here’s an interesting finding about the sex lives of older women. A report in The American Journal of Medicine says a majority of women report sexual satisfaction increases with age. The study involved 800 women with an average age of 67.
Sixty-one percent were satisfied with their overall sex life, regardless of whether they had a partner. This is counter-intuitive because older age is considered a predictor of low satisfaction, but the percentage of sexually satisfied women in the study actually increased with age. About half the women older than 80 reported sexual satisfaction almost always or always. Only a fifth of these women reported high levels of desire – they often had sex for other reasons like sustaining a relationship. But once they did it, they enjoyed it.

Not only were the oldest women the most satisfied overall, the oldest women who were sexually active had satisfaction rates similar to those of the youngest women.

And most said they were satisfied or very satisfied with the amount of emotional closeness during sex. The researchers say this is the factor that’s associated with greatest satisfaction.